# Interesting maybe-coincidence: Latios/Latias design and a 1999 UFO photo



## nothing to see here (Feb 10, 2015)

While poking around on Facebook tonight, I stumbled across this page when one of my friends posted a link: http://www.ufointernationalproject.com/latest-news/atmospheric-monster-space/

Scrolling through, I noticed one pictured looked oddly familiar.  Not the colors, of course (it's all gray here) but the shape is just bizarrely similar to a certain pair of Pokémon...







Got me wondering if maybe this photograph or similar might have inspired the design of the "Latis."  Pokémon get based on mythical critters all the time, including some that people actually search for in real life (Tsuchinoko = Dunsparce), and not always from Japanese mythology either... and we did get "little gray big-head aliens" Pokémon a couple generations later.  So I don't think using supposed UFO/cryptid images as design inspiration is much of a stretch.  I guess the big question is whether this image was widely known enough that Pokémon designers way over in Japan would've seen it in the time between 1999 and when the Ruby/Sapphire designs were finalized--kind of a scrunched time-scale, but I suppose it's possible if somebody on the team was into UFO photos.

Not an exact match, but the long neck/wider body/wings/little feet/sorta jet-like outline is definitely there.  It even looks like there's a "white/lighter underside + darker colored upper parts" color pattern going.

Anyone else see a resemblance there?


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## Superbird (Feb 10, 2015)

It also reminds me of Meta Knight's Halberd, from the Kirby games.


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## Murkrow (Feb 10, 2015)

I just figure that they designed the Latis to be aerodynamic, which UFOs tend to be (whether they're a deliberate hoax or just the literal kind)


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## horgie (Feb 11, 2015)

I Like Latios Best !


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## Misa Hennessey (Feb 19, 2015)

The only thing that probably inspired is the terribad image quality of the early GBC games.


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## LadyJirachu (Aug 9, 2015)

Wow that is so cool o.o;; A real life lati^^


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